Photo of lynxes excites Coloradans

The elusive lynx, once considered part of Colorado's past, now has a big following in the modern world of social media.

Retired National Park Service employee Steve Chaney snapped a rare photo of a pair of the wild cats in southwest Colorado last weekend.

The photos were posted on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Facebook page Wednesday and had more than 9,000 likes early Thursday evening, along with more than 900 comments. More than 6,400 users had shared it on their own pages.

The pair seemed calm as they walked along a steep, snowy roadside. The precise location was not stated.

The Smithsonian magazine has called lynxes "ghost cats" because they are so rarely seen.

Two lynxes on a Colorado road. (Steve Chaney, Colorado Parks and Wildlife)

Colorado's native lynx died out in the early 1970s because of trapping, poisoning and development.

The state's wildlife agency began reintroducing lynxes in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado by releasing animals captured in Alaska and Canada.

The first kittens born to the transplanted lynxes were documented in 2003, and
third-generation cats were first found in 2006.

By 2006, 218 lynxes had been brought in and equipped with tracking devices on collars so researchers could monitor their movements.

The much more common bobcat is often mistaken for a lynx, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. A larger cat with a shorter tail, the lynx is gray, 20 to 30 pounds, with a black-tipped bobtail and large hind feet.

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The tufts on its ears are as long as the ears themselves. Lynxes breed in late winter, and the kittens are usually born in April or May. Their habitat is thick subalpine trees and "willow-choked corridors along mountain streams and avalanche chutes."